And this is where the road forks: 12/12/12

Tonight I will take my final dose of LDK378. At 7 am sharp tomorrow morning, I will report to radiology/surgery to get prepped for a needle core biopsy. I am hoping that it is uneventful (no pneumothorax), and successful: that sufficient cancerous tissue can be harvested and that the mechanism of my resistance will ultimately be determined. Also on the table–possible gene sequencing.

It’s been a good run; about fifteen months on LDK. I am exceedingly grateful for this deposit in my time bank, but I look forward to the possibility of ramping up my quality of life again. As it stands now, I will be starting chemo (carboplatin/alimta) next week, so it’s a given that I am going to feel worse before I possibly feel better. I’m taking the long view though…

My instructions for tonight include NPO after midnight. I know this means I should refrain from eating or drinking, but I decided to find out what the letters actually stand for: Nil Per Os. That’s latin, but I’ll take a wild guess that it does in fact mean nothing by mouth (or NBM in english!).

Tomorrow’s date is 12/12/12. There will be more than the average number of weddings, induced labors (who doesn’t want a lucky baby) and lottery tickets purchased as well. I like to think it is an auspicious date. But it seems I almost blew it; my go-to-biopsy outfit was to be some black yoga pants. However, according to numerologist Swetta Jumaani in an article from the NY Daily News, “Black is a very inauspicious color,”……. “Something bad always happens.”

Linnea I didn’t read your post until Dec. 13th and I wore all black yesterday. From a different point of view – without the black sky at night, we wouldn’t see the stars. Look east tonight at about 10 pm and you may see the Gemini meteor showers. I think that is a very auspicious sign of good things for you. Beryl

Beryl, there should always be someone with a different point of view (I suppose we could call you the black sheep this time). Anyway, I am glad it was you. We live amongst tall trees, and I couldn’t see the night sky, but I was thinking of you and the meteors–on facebook someone posted a gorgeous picture of the shower taken in Iceland. So many ways of beauty in this world, and so many ways of looking at any one moment.

Hi, my mother has the same treatment ldk378 since 12 months, and I am very worried about his disease. I’d like to have information, other experience, about people who follows this treatment.
Thanks very much
Jerome